Playing Hardball

Well the response came back on the offer we put in on a house.  We offered the asking price IF the seller would replace a broken window, carpet in one room that had cigarette burns in it, and a door to another room that had a hole in it.  The sellers came back and said that they would fix the window but we would have to raise the offer for them to fix the carpet and the door because, otherwise, they wouldn't be making any money on the sell.

Here's the really sad thing about that:

• The seller told us that she bought the house in October of last year for $92,000 and is now asking $98,000.  You can't buy and sell a house in six months in this economy and actually expect to make any money off it.  This isn't exactly a "flippers" market.
• The seller had already started to move her stuff out of the house and her dogs weren't there when we went to look at it the second time so we're pretty sure she's already got another house and, if she's not already, will likely soon be paying on two mortgages.
• The seller admitted that the burns in the carpet happened when her daughter was smoking in the house and fell asleep at the computer and that the window was broken by her daughter as well.  You can't purchase something, damage it, and then expect to make money off of it.  Absolutely nothing works like that.
• And finally, Snackers and I went house hunting again last night and we found a house with over 150 more sq feet that is in the part of town that we originally wanted to live in in the first place that is only $2,000 more than the house we put an offer on.  It just came on the market in the last week, it has black and white checkerboard tile all throughout the downstairs and is just a whole lot nicer.  The drawbacks are that it is in an HOA and the dues are $90/mo instead of the $20/mo that they were at the other place and although the front yard is huge and highly appealing, the back yard isn't quite as nice.  We only saw it from the outside because we like to go do a cursory look before having our realtor show us a house because Snackers has eliminated quite a few houses just by looking at them without even getting out of the car (and for good reason).  But I think we're going to see if we can go look at it tonight.  Based on the location of the home and the curb appeal that it has, not to mention the killer tile work, I think my resale value will increase a whole lot faster and higher than at the other house but I now have a whole new HOA to investigate which is not my favorite thing in the world to do.

At any rate, I think this seller is playing games still and I think she could quite possibly "play" herself right out of a buyer.  I'm really not the game playing type and I guess she's not getting that in spite of the fact that I've already called her bluff on the multiple offer situation she tried to throw at me last week.  It's a buyers market right now to be sure and I think she should just be grateful that she's found a seller before she's in the position that many people find themselves in, with no other choice than to walk away and let the bank take the home ... especially because we didn't try to low-ball her.  We straight up offered her asking price contingent that she sells the home in the same condition that it was in before she bought it.  She certainly hasn't made any improvements to it, after all.  *sigh*  This feels like playing poker and I hate playing poker.



Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 Fiber One bar
1 leftover homemade turkey reuben
2 chicken fajita tacos (dry)
1 dinner salad (no dressing)
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Daily Caloric Intake: 1,067



Activity:
6 flights of stairs
House shopping: we went and looked at four more houses after work starting with the "amazing" house mentioned above.  It wasn't all that after all.  After being completely disappointed by all four houses we drove back through the neighborhood of the house we put the offer on, grabbed some tacos, came home and crashed for a nap.  *cue the choir of angels*  Vladdy woke me up to go out and I'm still tired but at least I got 3 more hours than I would have had otherwise.